USA ENGLAND GERMANY AND AUSTRALIA

YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING

Random babbling:

- USA almost gave me a bloody heart attack in today's game with Algeria (the game almost ended with 0-0) AND THEN THEY PULLED THROUGH IN THE LAST TWO MINUTES WITH A GOAL FROM DONOVAN AND EVERYONE WAS LIKE DOGPILING AND EMOTING EVERYWHERE AND I JUST SAT THERE NOT BELIEVING MY EYES AND THEN GOING OMG YES YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

- ENGLAND played really well from the start of their game with Slovenia (or so I heard - I only have the attention span to watch one match at a time) and kept up their 1-0 lead from the first half for the rest of the game w00t.

- GERMANY kicked ass, as usual. According to eur0philia, they played a really great game against Ghana, as we would expect from the awesome German team 8Db

- AUSTRALIA played Serbia and GLORIOUSLY they won 2:1, which is fucking amazing considering Germany lost 0:1 to Serbia in a previous match (due to some fail!ref-ing) and even if the Socceroos won't make it into the Round of 16, THEY DID US PROUD.

Considering all the craptastic ref-ing in previous matches (like Germany vs Serbia and Slovenia vs USA for a few examples), unjustified carding for certain players, all those tie games and the shoddy playing that can be seen from certain teams (cough)Italy(cough)France(cough), TODAY WAS SIMPLY A GLORIOUS DAY.

Tags:

Now I shall continue to bore you with bits and pieces of my travels this week:

- went to the countryside (to where my grandparents grew up and where my dad grew up). My maternal grandparents grew up somewhere about 2 hours drive away from the city. My dad and paternal grandparents grew up about 4 hours drive away from the city.

- went to a hot springs resort in Enping (where my dad grew up). Ahhhhhhh, creature comforts: working showers, sitting toilets, clean sheets that don't smell musty, my own room with a TV, HOT SPRINGS!!!!! Yeah, call me a capitalist/consumerist pig, but hey, we all have our creature comforts :B If only I could've stayed for longer than one night ;__;

- went to visit paternal grandparental gravesites that are literally situated on a series of mountains. My eldest uncle on my dad's side is eccentric and of good health: he's approaching 80-something years old, climbs mountains daily by himself, and when he finds places with good fengshui, he goes and moves the graves of his ancestors to the new sites. Too bad his memory is not as good as his health, no one is 100% sure exactly which grave belongs to whom...they weren't labelled with names in those days, after all.

- my dad demonstrated his universal stupidity slash complete lack of social graces even within his home country/home town/home village. He wanted me to take a picture of him bowing at my paternal grandfather's grave like WTF. Even my aunt was like no, you shouldn't. Dad is a retard. He really is.

- visited MCDONALDS and KFC in China: key differences in the menu are local preferences - instead of apple pie, they have taro and red bean pie in Chinese Maccas. Plus the locals love their chicken, so to compete Maccas has fried chicken and BBQ chicken in local flavours. They also have grilled corn kernels at Maccas, and more ice cream flavours (melon, mocha, and some random things I'm not quite sure of). At KFC they have corn coleslaw instead of chips in meals by default (though you can buy chips separately), and they recently promoted their new menu item: soy milk (served hot or cold, cold one extra RMB). For dessert KFC has egg tarts. Note that if you do plan on trying some of these items, all the menus are in Chinese and you will have a pickle of a time trying to order anything. And people will cut queues just because they can. I take about ten minutes trying to order because I'm pointing at stuff and asking what it is.

- Coca-cola in China: the bottled Coke is terrible. Drink only can Coke to avoid that terribly disappointed feeling when you take the first sip out of a nice cold bottle.

- bought a black dressy-ish trenchcoat (what is it with me and trenchcoats?).

- dyed my hair 'burgundy' red, so the colour chart said.

- flew to Beijing. Started my period that day, so cramps on the plane was really really unpleasant.

- discovered that there are places with a blue sky in China.

- visited the Great Wall, Ming Tombs, Forbidden City, Summer Palace and Heavenly Temple. Did not quite understand why people felt a huge portrait of Mao Zedong is necessary to adorn the front gate of the Forbidden City. Have passed through more security checks in the Tiananmen Square area than I have in a lifetime. Apparently people like to bomb/graffiti Mao Zedong's tomb if given the opportunity. I contemplated possible ways to smuggle flammable items into the area that may possibly bypass these checkpoints.

- discovered that Beijing, while still quite dusty, is significantly cleaner than Guangzhou. Except that people still randomly spit on the street.

- people seem to really like dogs in Beijing.

- people tend to be friendlier in Beijing than in Guangzhou.

- people tend to actually respect queue ettiquette in Beijing. In Guangzhou, you push your way into the line just because you can.

- discovered new things about my relos that I never knew before. I have an aunt who is one of the top ranks in the police force and specializes in things like developing the anti-forging watermarks/special inks/chips you find on passports and border control stuff. I forget the official term. But she is one of the rare women sitting at the top and earns a lot of money, which she doesn't even need to touch because the government pays for everything - her accommodation, food, shuttle to work, etc.

- discovered my fear of heights is very strong indeed at the Great Wall. Could barely walk one section without getting cold feet.

- discovered that warmth and comfortable clothing is far more important than looking nice while travelling. That being said, I did buy a more flattering down jacket than the one I was wearing, which is my grandmother's and makes me look like Marshmallow Man that took a dip in a raspberry vat.

- rediscovered my dislike for tour groups.

- rode a rickshaw into 'Old Beijing'.

- admired ancient Chinese architecture.

- learnt to bargain for stuffed pandas.

- got gypped in the city into buying crappy photoshopped photos. Meh. You win some, you lose some. My parents can't tell the difference between good photoshop skills and bad photoshop skills. I watched them plaster my head onto someone else's body and get Levelled to death.

- on that note, Beijing-ers tend to be really aggressive sellers - some will literally accost you the moment you cross the threshold into their shop. Guangzhou-ers can be as aggressive, but you can get them to leave you alone somewhat when you tell them you are just looking.

- flew back to Guangzhou again. Will be forced to wear a white polo and pose for a mass family portrait thingymabob tomorrow morning. I anticipate this event to be very unpleasant or at least extremely awkward. Oh well, can look forward to buying cheap stuff afterwards. BUAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

;__; How is everyone doing? I'm getting sick of the PRC steadily (there is not much culture to be absorbed in Guangzhou and there's about two weeks left of this fuckery*) and I miss a hot water system that is actually adjustable. And toilets that flush properly. Well, at least I'm walking more. So the PRC is actually good for something.

P.S. *Fuckery as mentioned above - a lot of relos in one place is really annoying. Half of them hate each other, especially the older generation. The younger ones are generally spoilt or really unfriendly, period (oh, adolescence), and the rest are happy to bitch about the others but do nothing about it and pretend everything is fine and dandy.

As expected, Facebook is definitely blocked from access here in the hugely overpopulated, smog-filled nation known fondly as China. Makes me sad.

So, my day was fairly eventful:

- Woke up at the pleasant time of around 6am to the sound of parents bickering over luggage and shite.

- Had a really quick drive to the airport despite the time (during which cars are normally bumper to bumper in the M5 especially). Threatened my brother with DEATH if he damaged my car during my absence.

- Had to dial through about 1000 different 3-number combinations because my brother fucked up and couldn't remember the combination he set on the luggage lock that he reset. None of the combinations worked. That was equally brilliant.

- Check-in was as expected, mom overpacked by 4 kgs and we were forced to remove some heavy items (such as the jars of fish oil pellets and jars of face cream she bought for souvenirs and gifts for relos).

- We would soon come to regret this action later, because the customs inspectors naturally removed all 'liquid' items from our carry-on with the exception of what would fit into 3 plastic zip-lock bags. Yes, we are terrorists, here to blow up your plane, armed with the ingenious combination of fish oil pellets and lanolin face cream. Ah well, the lesson is well learnt, we will not try to do the plane a favour next time and pack all luggage into one suitcase.

- Mom, very upset over the loss of gifts for relos (gift-giving is very important over here), was so angry at herself she was about to cry. Dad tried to make her feel better but naturally by doing it the completely wrong way and therefore making it worse. Angry parents bickering again. I am silently eating my Sausage and Egg McMuffin with extra sausage and cheese and wishing that I never agreed to this fiasco in the first place and stayed home.

- Eventually parents got over it and we ventured into duty-free to buy replacement gifts of alcohol and tobacco. We bought two packs of Black Label and Double Black Label Johnny Walker (or whatever) and some Malboro Gold and some obscure brand of Chinese cigarettes.

- The flight was fairly uneventful. There were no evil bratty children thank god, but it was hilarious listening to the inflight transmissions made by the cabin crew. We travelled with China Southern Airlines so all the cabin crew are far more well-versed in Mandarin/Cantonese than English. It was very difficult to understand their instructions in English. Bear in mind that this is possibly very dangerous as well in the event of an emergency. There were frequent pauses in any English announcements. Sometimes the English announcement would be cut off mid-sentence with no continuation, the poor flight attendant undoubtedly having given up due to extreme flustered-ness or something.

- The food on the flight was fairly good for airplane food. Though my mom had another butthurt moment when she looked at the duty-free catalogue on the plane and apparently the tobacco we had purchased in the airport terminal was more expensive than the ones on the plane. She was later appeased when a flight attendant explained that the ones they sold on board were produced in China and the ones we had purchased in the Sydney airport was produced in Australia. I am just glad I was spared more parental bickering.

- Upon arrival in Guangzhou, I was struck by the sudden sensation that yes, I was in CHINA. Why, you ask? Well the sky was an unnatural grey, for one thing. Another was the absolutely friendly and delightful attitude of the customs officials (yes, I'm being sarcastic), the complete absence of any retail amenities in the airport (but that may possibly be attributed to the construction occurring onsite), and the funny Engrish posted in random places.

- This tickled me as I walked past the construction barrier: "Please understand the inconvenience of construction." While the sentence is grammatically correct, it just sounds very strange for the context.

- The overwhelming number of Asians lining up at the Foreign Visitors desk at customs was also a source of hilarity. We outnumbered any actual white/black/non-Asian people by more than 50 to 1? And the lack of people lining up at the PRC Nationals desk was just too fucking funny after a 9-hour flight in the center seats with no legroom.

- Curiously, no one even bothered to check our baggage at customs in Guangzhou, we just picked it up off the carousel and followed the crowd outside...and it was already the Arrivals Hall. I was shocked because I would think the stringent suspicious people of the PRC would want our stuff checked for contraband or undeclared stuff. My parents shrugged it off, saying that the officers only really called up sus-looking people, and that their main priority was preventing drugs from entering the country. I was still bewildered by the random.

(Fastforwarding now, my spoilt brat of a cousin will need to go to bed, and the computer I am using is in his temporary room)

- Had dinner with uncle from dad's side, his wife and his son. The dinner was awkward but amusing at the same time because my uncle bickered with my aunt like my parents do.

- Got to my grandparents' place, realised that they now have a dog. Now the dog is small and fluffy and cute, but barks a lot at strangers (i.e. us). Let's see if he tries to bit me. The name they gave the dog is so stereotypical of a pet name in China - Bao-Bao, bao meaning treasure. The repetition is more affectionate.

- Rediscovered my disdain/hatred for my younger cousin and possibly other children in general. It's like fucking 10pm at night, and the little brat, who's been playing video games all day and didn't even say hello to us, demands his mother get him McDonalds because he is 'in a bad mood'. This guy slammed a bedroom door on us because it was left open a gap and the little shit didn't want to be disturbed while playing video games.

My beef with this is not even about the food (no duh), it's the attitude: If you want to get fucking Maccas, get it your fucking self. I totally hate it when people leave my bedroom door open when they leave too, but seriously? I would never do that to visitors or relos. His attitude is appalling and it's only gotten worse since the last time I've seen him and IT'S ONLY THE FIRST DAY.

I wanna go home. To Internet that's not censored and air that is relatively clean. Oh, and an actual shower, not a sink tap with a handheld showerhead attachment. I complain about this because it's incredibly cumbersome and tiring to hold the shower in one hand and it's hard to feel like you've rinsed thoroughly when there's not enough water flow. SLAMS HEAD AGAINST WALL. And before you ask, there is no bathtub.

At least there's a toilet you can sit on. If it was a squatting toilet I might actually try to murder myself (and it would be dreadfully simple here). Now to hope I don't need to go when we're out and about on the street, because public toilets here (besides being incredibly unhygienic) generally require squatting.

Description of meme, as quoted from eur0philia 's LJ: where the person who tagged you describes you in five words and then you describe those attributes. So if anyone wants a go at the meme, leave a comment and I'll describe you :D.

I received the following five words from eur0philia : Lazy. Yaoi. Random. Maccas. Hatesex. :DDDD

You know how sometimes people on your friendslist post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when were they working THERE? Since when were they dating HIM/HER? Since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy the topics below, erase my answers and put yours in their place, and then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration. One-Word-Answers seldom help anyone out.

So basically today, morau spontaneously felt the need to clean her room.

She hasn't cleaned it for more than half a year, by the way. Would have been longer, but she actually only moved in half a year ago so...

You see, the need to tidy up a little came from the fact that she hadn't actually seen her desk in months (hidden under precariously stacked piles of paper, DVDS, other random pieces of stationery) and she was sick of balancing her plates and bowls of food on the tiny gap between the edge of the desk and the keyboard (kept cleared because it would be bothersome to type otherwise).

So morau thus embarked on the arduous, and rather health-hazardous, quest of cleaning her room. The first thing she discovered once she sorted through the piles of paper and DVDs was that there was a lolly at the bottom. Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but this lolly had been there for months as well, and sometime in the summer, the lolly must have melted or ate away at the wrapping, because morau discovered this lolly lying in a congealed, sticky puddle of melted lolly.

I emphasize once again that it's been there for MONTHS.

This was a melon flavored lolly too, so it basically looked like slime. Now, amazingly, it hadn't stuck to any of my papers or ANYTHING, just the surface of the desk. Now, any NORMAL girl would have shrieked and hurriedly drowned it in some sort of industrial-strength cleaning agent and wrestled it off, but no, morau being slightly deranged, decided to go to her brother's room and inform him of her awesomeness.

Her brother wasn't really impressed, since he's cleaner than I am in general living habits. Well, sod him.

But alas, the lolly slime could not stay there forever, so morau went to fetch some cleaning spray and a cloth to get it off. It came off quite easily though.

morau continued to clean, ridding the desk and computer vents of many, many, many, many dust bunnies, and encountering nothing particularly gross until she removed some of her bags from the floor to move them around and see if she can squeeze in some more space. What did she find under the bag? A dead bug.

Not sure what kind of bug, but it was significantly big, and quite, quite dead. When morau plucked its corpse from the carpet (fingers covered by a shield of scrap paper), she discovered that the corpse was quite dry and crunchy, since it sort of crunched in her fingers. Like biscuit. So it was not only dead, it had been dead for quite some time too.

When morau finally cleaned 70% of her room, it had taken her more than four hours. And she also discovered her carpet was actually supposed to be a different color.

Her father saw morau cleaning her room and said: "Oh my god, the sun rises from the west now."

Well, minus the 'oh my god' part.

morau's mother was so delighted and moved she almost squealed (but didn't, because morau's mother is too awesome to squeal).

morau's brother was giving morau 'you are the most disgusting female EVAR' face.

morau still hasn't finished the other 30% of her room.

Current Mood: amused

Tags:

Doesn't it just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, eh? ;D This is what I envision Misaki's face-splitting grin to be like when he wins the Othello match against Usagi in my little drabble below (shameless plug?).

Credit to Storm in Heaven scanlations for providing the manga page from which I cropped this face.

And don't worry, Junjou scanlations are still being worked on. In case any of you are feeling antsy.